What Comes Next
by Costas TT
Summary: Takes up where Watershed left off. Kate's answer, a case, and a look into the future. Since it was written months ago, it's spoiler free for those who don't want any. Two part story, complete, so no waiting for the second installment, which will be up before Valkyrie airs. I hope it will make you laugh. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** This was written months ago, before any spoilers for Valkyrie came into play. I'd resisted publishing it back then, but just rediscovered it in my files and decided to post it. Basically, it's a post-Watershed fic. All the usual disclaimers apply, blah-blah.

* * *

"_Katherine Houghton Beckett, will you marry me?"_

Upon hearing Castle's question, Beckett's jaw dropped. Her tear-filled eyes were fixated on the ring he was holding and she made a strangled little noise in the back of her throat. Then her eyes moved to his, seeing pure, unadulterated love in their blue depths, plus fear… fear of rejection. She ran her hands through her hair, still thoroughly shocked.

"Kate?"

No response. She had gone completely rigid with shock and he had to snap her out of it.

"Kate!" Again, nothing. "Beckett!"

"Um, I… Castle…" She still didn't know what to say. "This... this must not be good for, uh, your knee, Castle," she finally managed to stammer. "Get up."

He almost laughed out loud. He was proposing to her and all she could think about was his (about completely healed but still smarting occasionally) knee? Still, he obliged her and sat back on the swing. "Now what?"

"Pinch me," she said, with a dead serious look in her eyes, shock and disbelief still evident on her face.

"Pinch you," he echoed. "You want me to pinch you. Seriously?"

She almost rolled her eyes at him. "Yes, dammit, pinch me!"

"All right, but remember, you asked for it." He reached over and pinched her butt, hard.

"OUCH!" Kate yelped, jumping a little in her seat and slapping his hand away. "Castle! We are in a playground and this was totally inappropriate!"

"Sorry," he said without a trace of regret in his voice.

"Forget it. So, I'm not dreaming."

"No, you're not. This is happening for real."

"And you are not breaking up with me."

"On the contrary… Why would you think that I was going to break up with you?"

"You just proposed to me," she mumbled instead of answering his question.

"I did."

"You proposed to me…"

"We already established that," he interrupted.

She gave him one of her famous glares. "This is not an ultimatum," she stated. "You want to marry me regardless of my decision about the job."

"I realized that I shouldn't be the one to hold you back, Kate. If you want the job, take it. I can do my own job in DC just as well as I'm doing it here in New York. Besides, I recall wanting to write a book titled Federal Heat. Special Agent Nikki Heat… it sounds just as good as Detective Nikki Heat." He winked and earned an eye roll from her.

"You would follow me to DC?"

"I'd follow you anywhere, period," he said definitively. "As your loving husband, of course," he clarified. "Or, as your fiancé, at least in the beginning."

"So this is not about keeping me in New York…"

"I thought I'd made it crystal clear. We have a lot to work through, we both have issues, but we can do it just as well while being engaged, Kate. After all, we don't have to get married tomorrow, right? The timing for this proposal could be better, but, hey, I figured now would be as good a time as any. You wanted to know where we're headed. This is it. I didn't want to scare you back then by proposing on the spot, but I think we both deserve this, Kate."

Beckett realized that he'd had the ring for some time now. She would ask him exactly how long said time was later. Now, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded letter. "Read the last part," she said, handing it to him with a trembling hand.

"Putting the job ahead of your heart is a mistake," he read aloud. "Risking our hearts is why we are alive. The last thing you want is to look back on your life and wonder… if only." He looked at her, a question written all over his face.

"The letter was from Royce," she explained. "He had it with him when he died. Lanie gave it to me. And he was right. Four years ago I would have jumped at the chance and taken the job without a second thought."

"And now?"

"Now, I have a lot more to consider, Castle. The job is a good one, but there are definite downsides to the offer. Downsides I'll have to take into account before I make up my mind about accepting it or not."

"Go on," he encouraged her.

"If I take the job, we won't be working together any more."

"Well, this is a definite downside," he agreed, getting a nod and a small smile from her.

"In turn, it means that I won't be as good at it as I am now. Not without you constantly pulling my pigtails and spinning wild and/or case-breaking theories, plus Ryan, Esposito and Lanie… even Perlmutter."

"I beg to differ. You are a fantastic investigator, Kate. I'm sure you would adapt and shine."

"There is another downside. Remember Jordan Shaw?"

"Of course I do."

"I don't want to be the type of woman who has to miss birthdays and make a lot of phone calls to the people she loves, Castle, not because of the job."

"Do you see me arguing?"

"Plus, my Dad is here… all the important people in my life are here… my home, the 12th, is here. I was interrogating a suspect today when the thought struck me. Well, it was more like an epiphany, but I got everything into proper perspective… the 12th is indeed a home to me. I cannot just up and leave."

"Same goes for me, but if, and I repeat if, you take the job, we can always try to visit as often as possible." The 'we' part did not escape her attention.

"We won't have to, Castle. I'm not taking the job."

"What?"

"I won't take the job in DC. I'm perfectly happy with the one I've got here. Plus, I can't do to you and the others what Sorenson did to me when he left for Boston, even though you said you'd be willing to come with me. I won't even do the trial period with the Feds, because I don't think I can stay away from all the people I love that long."

He smiled and then immediately got serious again. "Where does that leave us?"

"We go on with our life," she answered in an almost 'duh' tone.

"No, I meant about…"

"I know what you meant, Castle. Even though I'm still scared half out of my mind, I believe now is a better time to ask me, so… ask me again."

He moved to get up from the swing.

"But be careful with your knee," she cautioned him. "I don't want to have to go through having you incapacitated like the last time."

"Maybe then I can finally be Charlie and you one of my Angels," he joked. "Although, thinking of Ryan and Esposito as Angels is kind of creepy."

"Castle!" Beckett half-scolded, half-chuckled.

"OK, here goes." He slowly, carefully, got down on one knee and offered her the ring again. "Katherine Houghton Beckett, would you like to be my wife-wife in addition to being my work wife? Will you marry me?"

"Yes," she replied. "I'm done hiding behind work. I will marry you. You are my one and done, Rick."

"And you are my third time charm, Kate." He slipped the ring on her finger and paused to admire it. She was also looking at it and then they automatically leaned closer to share their first kiss as an engaged couple. They broke the kiss when the need for air became pressing, looked at each other, smiled and kissed again.

"I love you, Rick. Always."

"Always," he confirmed, then claiming her lips for the third time.

A loud squeal, applause and cheers interrupted them. They looked towards the source of the noise and saw Lanie, Esposito and Ryan beaming happily at them. And then they were rushed by their friends, disappearing in their embraces.

"What are you guys doing here?" Castle asked. His back was beginning to hurt from the back-clapping he'd received from the boys.

"Beckett was acting weird, so we decided to follow her and find out what was going on," Ryan replied.

"Lanie gave us a heads-up on the job offer, but we had no idea you were going to propose, bro," Esposito added, nodding towards the ME, who had Beckett trapped in a bear hug. He had no chance to say anything else before his phone rang. "Esposito… got it. We're on our way."

"We have a case, Espo?" Beckett asked

"Yep."

"Not exactly the way I imagined us celebrating our engagement," she huffed, turning to Castle.

"Hey, we are Caskett. It was murder that brought us together in the first place and who says we won't wrap this up quickly and then get down to celebrating?" Castle said, feeding the birds with Ryan and Esposito.

"When the case is over, we need to have a serious talk about us," she reminded him.

"I know. We can do both, actually: celebrate and have a serious talk. Now, let's go solve a murder."

"You drive." She tossed him her keys.

"Huh?"

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, Castle."

"Can we stop for coffee on the way?"

"Funny, I was about to suggest the same thing. And, Rick? The proposal was big and intimate. Just as I like it."

Throughout the drive, Kate couldn't keep her eyes off of the engagement ring on her finger. A smile played on her lips. She almost couldn't believe it. Instead of breaking her heart into a trillion pieces, Castle had given her a gift beyond compare: a new life, a life with him. They stopped at a coffee shop, and he got them each a coffee. She took a sip and let out a small moan of pleasure at the taste. And then it came to her.

"Castle, did you talk to my Dad before proposing?"

"I did, but I avoided asking for his permission to propose to you. After all, I'd like to be alive for the wedding."

"Smart move," she chuckled.

"But I did inform him about my intentions. He wished me luck."

"He didn't sound too hopeful, I gather."

"No, but he said that if anyone could do it, it would be me. And he was right."

"If you called him before I met him today, he's gonna get an earful for not telling me."

"Frankly, I called him just after we agreed to meet at the swings."

"Huh. He's off the hook then."

-o-

"What have you got for us, Lanie?" Beckett inquired as she approached the ME, who was jotting down some notes on a clipboard. Their new crime scene was in a filthy alley not far from the river. Lanie and the boys had arrived there first because of Castle and Beckett's stop for coffee.

"Is it vanilla, or Caskett flavored?" Castle added, following his fiancée past the yellow crime scene tape.

"See for yourself," Lanie replied, pointing down an opened manhole. Sure enough, there was a body in it. Not so much a body, in fact, but a skeleton.

"The rats must have had quite a feast down there," Castle remarked.

"Yep. There is definite evidence of rodent scavenging on the bones."

"Cause of death? Or is it too early to ask?" Beckett said cautiously.

"Cause of death is fairly simple," Lanie replied. "I found evidence of a bullet hit on a clavicle. It is my considered belief that the bullet nicked the subclavian artery and he bled out."

"So, the victim is a he."

"Male, mid-thirties," Lanie confirmed for her best friend. "Hopefully, I'll know more when I get him back to the lab."

"What's that, Lanie? I don't think it was caused by rats," Castle said, pointing to a discoloration in the sternum, visible now that Lanie's assistants had lifted the bones out of the manhole and onto a gurney.

"It's bone bruising. I'd say it was perimortem."

"There are more of the same on a few of the ribs," he pointed out.

"Like he was struck repeatedly with the end of a billiards cue before being shot," Lanie agreed. "Or shot while wearing a vest," she added. "Judging by the cracks on the surface of the periosteum, I'd go for the latter."

"Huh…" Castle got a thoughtful expression on his face, walked down the alley and looked in both directions when he reached the street, before finally rejoining the two ladies, plus Ryan and Esposito, who'd just sent uniforms off to canvass for security cameras and the like. It was a long shot, but it had to be done anyway.

"What?" Kate and Lanie asked together, intrigued by his strange behavior.

"I think I know who this guy might be, the weapon used and who pulled the trigger."

"Care to share with the rest of the class?" Lanie prompted him.

"Me, Beckett's gun…"

"You killed this dude, Castle?" Ryan was incredulous.

"With Beckett's gun?" Esposito added, just as flabbergasted. Kate and Lanie were also shocked.

"Bear with me, please."

"I see a bullet fragment lodged in the scapula," Lanie said. "I'll send it to ballistics. Go on, Writer Boy."

"Writer Man," he automatically corrected her with the appropriate amount of indignation in his voice. "As I said, if I'm right, I shot this guy with Beckett's gun late last October."

"3XK," Kate said, her voice a whisper as she understood what her fiancé was talking about. "It's the Triple Killer. It's Jerry Tyson."

"Dude," Ryan and Esposito said in unison.

"So what tipped you, Castle?" Kate asked.

"What Lanie said about the vest was the clue. But I guess I got in a lucky shot just inside the vest's neckline, hitting his subclavian artery, like Lanie said. It wasn't enough to kill him outright, but he died down there from blood loss after crawling through the sewers from the river. The bridge I shot him off of is not far from here. CSU might even find his vest down there."

"Well, his DNA is on file, and so is ballistics on Beckett's piece," Esposito said.

"If the bullet matches, the DNA will be merely a formality," Ryan agreed. "But I'll still have CSU look for his vest."

-o-

"3XK? Really?" Gates asked after Kate gave her preliminary report.

"Yes sir," she said, keeping her left hand in her pocket. All that time, she'd managed to keep her boss from noticing the engagement ring on her finger, keeping it hidden in her pocket or behind papers. She wanted to put off telling her until a later time. "Castle was the first to notice the location's proximity to the river and the bridge where he shot Tyson back in October."

"Wrap this up in a bow for me, Detective. I want to know the second the ballistics report comes in. I'll sleep a lot better knowing this sonofabitch is rotting in Hell."

"Yes sir."

"And tell Castle 'good job' for me, will you?"

"Yes."

"Before I forget, what happened with the DC deal?"

"I was offered the job," Kate replied nonchalantly. "I declined to take it," she added in the same nonchalant tone. "I have more important things keeping me here in New York."

Gates just smiled knowingly. Privately, she was pleased not to have to lose her best detective to a faceless federal agency. "Then maybe you can see if you'll manage to beat my record for making Captain, Detective," she said, dismissing Beckett with a wave of her hand.

_If only she knew the full facts,_ Kate thought, bringing her thumb to give the diamond on her ring a loving caress.

"Yo, Beckett!" Esposito yelled from across the bullpen. "Ballistics is a match to your gun!"

"CSU found the vest with more bullets embedded in it and they're sending them to Ballistics," Ryan piped up as soon as he replaced his desk phone on its cradle. "It was in a drainage pipe near the river."

Beckett turned to her Captain. "Sir, I believe this cinches it. 3XK is now a pile of bones and rat poop. DNA will undoubtedly confirm it."

"Very well, Detective," Gates said, chuckling at Beckett's colorful description of 3XK's well-deserved fate. Now, take Mr. Castle and go home."

"Yes, Captain."

"Ryan, Esposito, go home, too," Gates told the other two detectives.

"This has to be the quickest murder case we ever solved," Ryan remarked.

"Except it wasn't a murder," Kate corrected. "It was a justified homicide."

"I stand corrected, it was self defense."

"Call Lanie," Castle said. "Tell her to meet us for drinks at the Old Haunt. My treat."

"As always," Kate chuckled.

-o-

"GIRL, I'MMA SMACK YOU!" Lanie screeched suddenly, as a thought struck her like a bolt of lightning. They were sitting in their usual booth at the Old Haunt enjoying their drinks when the ME remembered something.

"What did I do now?" Kate asked, surprised by her best friend's sudden outburst.

Lanie reached across the table and grabbed Kate's left hand. "You didn't even think to show the ring to me! It should have been the first thing to do when you accepted Castle's proposal!"

"Oh, that. Well, we were busy. You were there, remember?"

"I remember, all right," Lanie scoffed. Next to her, Jenny let out a muffled squeal.

"Yes, Jenny, I proposed to Kate and she said yes," Castle confirmed. Jenny smiled and congratulated the newly engaged couple.

Castle ordered another round of drinks, plus a jumbo plate of chicken wings, club sandwiches and fries.

"The captain can kiss her plausible deniability goodbye now," Ryan remarked. "The second Beckett comes into the precinct and lets everyone see that rock on her finger, Gates is gonna have kittens."

"You know what, Ryan? I don't care about plausible deniability. Besides, if push comes to shove, Castle is still at most an unofficial consultant, volunteering his free time to be around in the 12th, therefore we haven't broken any NYPD rules. And I was careful to hide it from her today. She was glad to hear about 3XK, so why ruin it for her?"

"It's true. Plus, the waivers I've signed just mention that my intention is to do research. We are covered from every angle," Castle agreed.

"They're right. Besides, Gates won't care, bro," Esposito said. "She's only too happy to have Beckett still working for her."

"To us still being a team," Ryan toasted, raising his beer mug.

"Hear, hear," the others chorused.

-o-

"I, Kate Houghton Beckett, am officially an idiot," Beckett declared, plopping down on Castle's couch after kicking off her shoes.

"No you're not. You are extraordinary. After all, you are engaged to a ruggedly handsome, successful man."

"Am too."

"Are not!"

"Am too!"

"Explain yourself! I hope you're not having second thoughts about us."

"I… I should have known you were serious about us, Rick. After the Vaughn case, when I asked you where we were going, your answer was intended to keep me from freaking out, I understand it now, but I totally missed other hints before and after that!"

"Hints?"

"Yeah! Remember the Supernova Con, when you were concerned about being rendered infertile after firing the Thorian Blaster? I should have grasped the subtext! You want to have kids with me."

"Correct. Like your friend Maddie so eloquently put it, I want us to have little Castle babies. It took you a while, but you understand now."

"And then there was the bomb. Castle, you stayed with me to the end. That alone should have been enough, but I was stupid enough to give in to my own insecurities. All the above makes me an idiot!"

"Not any more, as you've seen the light," he reminded her, grasping her left hand gently in his, thus reminding her that she was wearing an engagement ring, before gathering her in his arms and carrying her to the bedroom. "All we have to do from now on is be open to each other, talk about everything and not keep secrets. I think what my fiancée needs right now is a nice bubble bath, wine and a good book."

"You got me Alex Conrad's latest novel?"

"Tease," he said and kissed her before setting her down on the bed. "No, I was thinking about letting you read a proof copy of my latest masterpiece." He didn't fail to notice how her eyes lit up at the prospect of being one of the very few people who got to read Castle's book before it got published.

For her part, she fully intended to reward him later that night, their first as an engaged couple.

-o-

"Castle?" Beckett mumbled, still in a post-coital bliss.

"Yeah?"

"What would we have done if last year Gates hadn't taken me back?"

"I wouldn't have given that much thought," he said dismissively.

"Without involving the Mayor," she clarified.

"Oh. In that case, I think we could have opened a private investigations business together."

"Really?"

"Yes, I think we would have been very successful in the biz. Or, I could have gently fostered the glowing embers of your obvious talent, fanning them into a literary wildfire. In fact, you could have co-authored the next Nikki Heat books with me… or branched out and written your own mystery novels."

"My talent?"

"Remember the end you came up with for Hamptons Heat?"

"Mmmm… Yes. Right now, I have another suggestion for you."

"I'm all ears."

"_The fact that Nikki was soon going to become Mrs. Jameson Rook had finally sunk in. However, it still excited in ways she'd never thought possible. Her fiancé – it thrilled her to think of him and call him as such – had already enthusiastically embraced the idea of having her little niece as a ring bearer or flower girl at the wedding…_"

"Wow… I'm impressed. You even found a perfect way to integrate Nikki's niece into it."

"Don't interrupt me."

"Sorry. Please, continue."

"_For the moment, she was content to cuddle with him after the very lively and very private celebration of their engagement. Nothing, not even the prospect of a call that might come from the precinct about a fresh body dropping could dampen her spirits. 'I love you,' she whispered in Rook's ear before resting her head against his chest and letting the rhythmic beat of his heart lull her into a peaceful sleep._"

"It's final. You, my dear Kate, could very well be Black Pawn's next Castle."

"Flattery will get you everywhere, Mr. Castle."

"I fully expect it will, future Mrs. Castle. As will serving you breakfast in bed in the morning."


	2. Chapter 2

As promised, here is the second and final part of the story, essentially snapshots of Caskett life post-Kate's yes. Enjoy!

* * *

Kate was with Castle in the loft, getting ready for an official function. They had just closed a case and been hoping for a nice, quiet day off at home, but Gates and the mysterious ways the NYPD sometimes worked had conspired to throw all their plans out the window. And to top it off, she was required to wear her dress blues.

"CASTLE!" Beckett screamed at her fiancé the second she attempted to do the top three buttons of her shirt.

"You called?" He walked into the bedroom adjusting his tie. He looked so good in his tailored suit that she almost forgot how mad she was.

"What is this?"

"I don't follow." His face showed genuine confusion, so she held her temper in check.

"The shirt, Castle, I'm talking about the shirt. Oh, and my pants are kind of tight, too. Dammit, Rick, did you wash them? They must have shrunk and now they are way too tight. I can't go to an official function looking like this."

He actually laughed. Her eyes narrowed dangerously, which he noticed, so he quickly supplied an explanation. "Kate, um, these are your, ahem, _other_, dress blues."

"What _other dress blues_?"

"Allow me to demonstrate." He moved confidently behind her, pulling the shirt tails out of her pants and tying them in a knot above her midriff. As a finishing touch, he popped a few buttons until the blue lace of her bra was revealed, and placed her peaked cap on her head at a rakish angle. "There," he said, taking a step back to admire his handiwork. "I also got you a belt with certain, um, accessories."

"You can't be serious!" Kate exclaimed after taking a look at her reflection in the mirror. "I look like those bachelor party cop twins from the photo shoot in the precinct a few years back!" She was seething with anger. "You turned my uniform into a stripper's outfit! I need a proper uniform for today, Castle!"

"Actually, this is the second set I ordered back when you had your new regular blues tailored. Said set is to be worn only in here. You can use me as a stripper pole any time you want, by the way."

Beckett's old dress uniform had been ruined when she got shot, so Castle had graciously, or so it had seemed at the time, recommended her a tailor where she could order a new one. Little did she know that he'd spent the money to get her an additional uniform, one that matched the sluttiest side his fertile imagination had created for Nikki Heat.

"Did you now?" She gave him her infamous death glare, for good measure. It didn't faze him one little bit. "So, where is my normal uniform?"

"Right here." He reached into the closet and pulled out a garment bag. "Want me to put on some music?"

"I'm not indulging your perverted mind by incarnating your stripper fantasy of Nikki Heat, Ricky," she growled and quickly unbuttoned the shirt, shrugging it off of her shoulders. She grinned at his disappointed pout and decided to throw him a bone. "But let's take a rain check." Soon, she was in her proper uniform, which had been so tailored as to accentuate her femininity, but in a much more subtle, modest way.

"Why was Gates so insistent on having both of us attend?" Castle grumbled as they exited the loft and headed for the building's parking garage. He was still a bit miffed at Kate for her having nixed his idea about taking the Ferrari.

"Heck if I know," she huffed.

As it turned out, the ceremony was to honor them and their entire team for their excellent performance in making New York a safer place for its people. In fact, the second the Mayor had learned about how Jerry Tyson had been disposed of, on top of everything else the dynamic duo had done for the city, he decreed that this time he was definitely going to give Castle and Beckett medals. Of course, both Esposito and Ryan were getting medals of their own as well, since they were an integral part of the team.

"The medal would look good on your _other_ uniform," Castle said, out of the blue on the way back.

"Maybe," she said, appearing to be focused on driving. "But then again, I was expecting you to say how good I'd look wearing the medal and nothing else." The blatant innuendo was enough to shut him up for the rest of the drive to the loft, to Kate's immense satisfaction.

-o-

"I'm getting too old for this," Castle informed Ryan and Esposito as the three, plus a last minute addition to their merry little band staggered towards his suite at the Sapphire. The three had reasoned that since they'd had such a good time at Ryan's unofficial bachelor party, they could go to the same venue for Castle's.

"Ditto, bro," Esposito rasped out. His throat was sore from all the karaoke singing, but at least the machine had been working just fine and he'd even been congratulated by other bar patrons for his performance.

For his part, Ryan carried himself with dignified stoicism, having already accepted the monumental hangover awaiting them in the morning. Fortunately, they wouldn't be driving back to New York from Atlantic City. Castle had hired a car service for the purpose. Still, he felt he had to contribute to the drunken conversation. "I wonder how the ladies are doing."

Castle suddenly grinned like the Cheshire Cat. "I can tell you where they are." He fished his phone from a pocket and clumsily opened an app.

"Dude, are you calling Beckett? She said not to bother her until tomorrow… well, until later today."

"I'm not drunk or stupid enough to call her. I'll just use the tracking app I installed on her phone."

"You are so dead," Esposito chuckled. "She's gonna find out, you know. The last thing my boy Ryan and I need is to be considered your partners in crime."

"Espo, you two are my partners in crime *solving*" Castle pointed out. And then… "No way!"

"What?" Esposito and Ryan almost bumped heads with their pal as they leaned in closer to look at the phone screen.

"Beckett is at the Package Store!" Castle blurted out, as he recognized the address on the display.

"The strip club?" Ryan remembered it from an older case.

"With Lanie?" Espo added.

"Not only with Lanie, but Jenny and…" Castle shuddered before continuing. "… Alexis."

"Not cool," Max whined.

"Yeah, the mere thought of my Kate getting a private dance from Hans Von Mannschaft makes me nauseous."

"Who?" Ryan asked, trying not to laugh out loud.

"The dude he and Beckett went to that joint to interrogate, Kev," Esposito clarified.

"Oh, I remember him now, from Beckett's report."

"We need to head down there, but first we have to pick up a few fire extinguishers," Castle declared.

"No can do, bro. The ladies are going to kill us and then make our dead bodies disappear."

"Espo's right, Castle. Odds are that Jimmy Hoffa will be easier to find than us."

"Listen to them, Mr. Castle," Max slurred. "I don't want to end up as Alexis' next cadaver."

"No need to worry about that happening, Max," Castle said, patting the young man on the shoulder. "She won't wait till you're dead. She's gonna gut you alive."

Max's face fell noticeably. He knew Alexis could be vicious when she wanted to.

Little did they know that Kate and Lanie had installed a similar tracking app on Esposito's phone and thus were totally aware of their men's whereabouts. The irony of it all…

-o-

Rick and Kate were having breakfast while reading this morning's edition of the Ledger together. As it was happening with some regularity lately, the front page was dedicated to yet another political scandal, apparently involving one Senator William H. Bracken, whose popularity was steadily plummeting towards zero.

"I don't know who managed to dig up so much dirt on Bracken, or how, but they're doing a damn fine job thus far," she remarked. "He must have pissed off some very powerful people. I can see no other explanation."

"Don't you love to see him squirm in front of the press?"

"Oh yeah," she agreed.

"And this is only the beginning." The second he said it, Castle clammed up. Frankly he was so happy to see his Kate enjoying her, correction, _their_ arch-rival's predicament so much, it'd just slipped out. Unfortunately, she didn't miss said slip-up.

"Castle, do you know something I don't?"

"Just guessing," he attempted a save. "It's snowballing for him, so I think we have every reason to expect more of his dirty laundry to come to light. I mean, we had no idea about some of the skeletons in his closet."

"You're blinking. You always blink when you're bluffing. Spill it."

He very reluctantly disentangled himself from her and made his way to the office.

"Richard Edgar Castle, get back here! I'm not done with you!"

He came back with a copy of Ian Fleming's second book, Live and Let Die.

"What is this?"

"See for yourself," he said, handing her the original first edition.

"Oh, Rick... Is it from your Dad?"

"Yes. It's also a message from him to us."

"It's a message," she repeated. "Live and let die." Kate's eyes went wide as she understood the not so subtle message – _Live your life and let Bracken die_ – and proceeded to leaf through the book.

"He wrote me a dedication of shorts," Castle pointed out for her.

She flipped to the title page. "Consider this a late engagement present... or an early wedding present. Signed, JH." She looked up at him. "Your Dad is behind all this?"

"Like I told you, he's been keeping tabs on me and my family, you included. I guess he put two and two together about Bracken. I never told him anything."

"I bet Bracken has no idea who's behind it all."

"He's sure to be looking, but I think he'll never catch on. Dad is just way above Bracken's league when it comes to skullduggery and subterfuge. He's a spy, after all."

"How far do you think he'll go?"

"For you... us? All the way. Frankly, I won't be surprised if Bracken doesn't last a week in prison, courtesy of the Mob."

"A week, huh? You're giving him way too much credit."

"Enough talking about that scumbag. Dad has got this."

"I want to meet him," she said, pulling him close for a kiss. "He sounds like a great guy."

"He is. I'm the living proof of it." He kissed her before she could come up with a biting remark. They were still kissing when her phone rang.

"Beckett... OK, see you there." She drained her coffee cup and made for the bedroom, shrugging her robe off of her shoulders. "That was Ryan. We got a new case. Are you coming or what?"

"Right behind you," he shot back, as he hurried to change out of his pajamas.

-o-

The hardest part of the wedding preparations had been, strangely enough, picking out a suitable venue. The beach house in the Hamptons? Too far away from the city. The library where she'd first arrested him? Too cramped. The bookstore? Ditto. The precinct? Again, ditto, plus Gates would have never allowed it. The swing set in the playground? Not enough privacy. Other potential venues had also been considered and rejected for a variety of reasons, until they both had a flash of inspiration.

This was how he found himself waiting for her in the same place where the Storm Fall launch party had been held; the same place they'd met for the first time (the second time, actually, but the first they'd been properly introduced). He straightened his tie for the tenth time and nervously shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Next to him, Ryan and Esposito could not pass up on the opportunity to tease him a little bit.

"This is the third time you're doing this and you're still nervous, bro?"

"I thought practice makes perfect," Ryan added.

"It's the first time with Kate… and the last time I'll ever be doing this," Castle informed Esposito. He sneaked a glance to Mayor Weldon and Judge Markway, who were jointly officiating the wedding. He got encouraging smiles from both.

Eddie, the piano player from the Old Haunt, began playing the bridal march. Castle momentarily lost the ability to breathe when he saw Her. She was walking down the aisle with her father, followed by Lanie, Jenny and Alexis, the three in amazing blue dresses that contrasted beautifully with Kate's white gown.

"I'm leaving her in good hands, Rick," Jim said, giving his daughter away.

"You have no idea," Rick and Kate said together. Jim nodded and went to take his place next to Martha Rodgers and Jackson Hunt. To all but a select few, the latter was just an old family friend whom Martha had asked to accompany her to her son's wedding. He had recently retired from the espionage business, his record had been expunged and he was now just the average Joe Citizen.

Captain Gates marched up to them, and nodded to Ryan and Esposito, who took Castle's left hand and Kate's right and without warning slapped a pair of handcuffs on them. She said nothing, just smiled meaningfully and went back to her seat next to her husband. Rick and Kate looked at her, then at their friends incredulously, and finally down to their joined hands and shrugged. Truth be told, they were beginning to appreciate the gesture. At least this time there was no tiger in the room.

"Dearly beloved, we gathered here today to join Richard Edgar Castle and Katherine Houghton Beckett in matrimony," Bob Weldon began.

Markway took it up from there. "Marriage is a partnership, a sharing of two lives combined into one and a responsibility not to be taken lightly. If anyone has just cause that those two should not be joined together, let them speak now, or forever hold their peace."

No one spoke up. Bob turned to Castle. "Do you, Rick, take Kate to be your lawful wedded wife, to love and cherish her through thick and thin, for the rest of your life?"

"Always," Castle responded with a smile.

The judge turned to Kate. "Do you, Katherine, take Richard to be your lawful wedded husband, to love and cherish him through thick and thin, for the rest of your life?"

"Always," she replied, smiling.

"Then, by the authority vested in us by the State of New York," Bob began.

"We pronounce you husband and wife," Markway finished.

"You may kiss the bride," they informed Castle in unison.

He smiled, gathered his bride in his arms, dipped her and kissed her soundly, to thunderous applause from the assembled guests. "I love you. Always," he told her.

"Always," she confirmed. Then they were swamped by Jim, Martha, Jackson, Alexis, Esposito, Lanie, Ryan, Jenny and even Gates. There was hardly a dry eye among the ladies present.

They danced at the reception while still cuffed together. The boys cut them loose only to allow Kate to dance first with her father and then with her father-in-law and Castle to share a dance with his mother and then his daughter.

The first destination for their honeymoon took Kate by surprise. It was Paris. "Consider it my way of telling you how sorry I am for not taking you with me the last time I was here," he told her just after their flight landed at Charles De Gaulle.

She just kissed him in reply.

-o-

The first hint that something was amiss came when Kate devoured the s'morelet he'd made for himself one morning. She claimed she loved it, pronouncing it heavenly and asked for more. His first reaction was to place his hand on her forehead and feel for her temperature. An emotional outburst she'd had while clearing the murder board from the previous case planted the seed of suspicion in his head and it was enough for him to drag her to Lanie's office for a blood test.

A couple of weeks later, Castle walked into the bullpen with the boys, laughing over a good joke a uniform had told them.

"Hey, Kate," he said. "You'll love this, too."

She looked up from her desk, her face taking an expression of rage, got on her feet, marched over to her husband and slapped him hard enough to send him spinning to bump against Karpowski's desk. "I hate you," she snarled.

"What did I do?" Castle asked, shocked by her outburst and stunned by the slap.

"What did you do? You knocked me up, Castle! Thanks to you, I've been assigned to desk duty…"

"I don't recall you complaining about the, ahem, activities that led to you being…"

"SHUT UP! Where was I? Oh, yes. I got assigned to desk duty, while you and those two miscreants run amok in the city, and to top it all, I have to go without coffee and wine for the next few months! And I'm eating so much it feels like I'll turn into a Goodyear blimp!" She finished her rant, about faced and stomped off to the break room.

"Welcome to the mood swing phase, Castle," Ryan said, sympathetically patting his friend's shoulder. In her office, Gates had brought both hands to her mouth to muffle her laughter. The rest of the uniforms and detectives on the homicide floor returned to their work after having thoroughly enjoyed the show.

"Well, I better find a way to appease her. My safe word can only work so many times, after all." He practically ran out of the precinct to the nearest store selling the best decaf coffee money could buy. The taste of coffee might have a calming effect on his wife, he reasoned.

"You are still way more whipped than Castle, bro," Esposito was heard to say to Ryan.

-o-

"Jim, I must say it. Your baby girl sure has a dirty mouth when the mood strikes her. She's worse than a trucker, a sailor and a Marine put together."

Next to Jackson Hunt, Jim Beckett chuckled, both men getting a Martha Rodgers glare. Kate had been turning the air in the delivery room blue with her cussing. And when she wasn't cursing, she was threatening to shoot her husband or at the very least break a few of his limbs. Ryan, who'd never heard such foul language from a lady, let alone from Katherine Beckett-Castle, was holding his hands over his infant son's ears.

They all jumped in their seats when an unearthly scream (Ryan would later swear that Kate must have been a Banshee in a previous life) emanated from the delivery room, followed seconds later by the distinctive cry of a baby.

Richard Castle soon appeared, still in scrubs and carrying a little pink bundle in his arms. "Ladies and gentlemen, meet Johanna Marlene Castle," he said, pure unbridled joy evident in his voice. Martha and Lanie hugged, realizing that the baby's middle name was derived from their own names. Everyone gathered around, patiently waiting for their chance to hold the newest addition to the family. "You and I are going to have a long talk soon," Castle said, addressing little Ryan, who was squirming in his dad's arms. The infant insisted on reaching out for Johanna, prompting a growl from her father.

"Dude, he just wants to play," Ryan said.

"Now; he wants to play now. But a few years from today, he'll…"

"Dad, you're getting kind of paranoid," Alexis admonished him, snatching her little sister from his arms. She gave everyone the chance to fawn over the baby girl and then she took her back to her mom. "Here you go, Kate."

"Thanks Alexis. How did it go out there?"

"You know Dad. He's already thinking about keeping Little Ryan away from her."

Kate chuckled. "I expected no less of him. Was he that bad with you?"

"You have no idea."

"Trust me, I do. For example, he once asked me to run a background check on a date of yours, Owen I think. If memory serves, it was before he took you to Junior-Senior Prom."

"Typical Dad," Alexis laughed. "And thank you."

"For what?"

"For giving me a sister."

Kate just pulled Alexis in for a hug.

-o-

Castle peeked around a doorway and motioned for Kate to move to a new position. She had her gun at the ready and sprinted to the cover provided by a couch. She swept the room, signaling for Rick to move as well. He ran and crouched behind the island counter in the kitchen.

"Do you see anything?"

"No," he replied. "What about you?"

"Nada."

"OK, keep quiet. We have a few more rooms to search."

"Which one should we search first?"

He looked around, all his senses on high alert. "This one," he replied, pointing to a half-open door. "We secure our backs and continue searching."

"I'll cover you."

"On three?"

"On three," she agreed.

"One... two... three!" He burst into the room, Kate following behind.

"There's no one here."

"Uh-huh. But this is a big place. She could be anywhere."

They moved to the kitchen again, as it provided the best cover and paused to reevaluate their strategy and tactics.

_BZZZT! BZZZT! BLEEP! BLEEP! _

"_GAME OVER. PLEASE PROCEED TO EXIT_," a mechanical voice announced.

"What the hell?" Castle wondered.

His wife was just as confused. "How...?"

"You guys should be more careful," a voice said from behind them. They turned to find a pair of bright green eyes looking mischievously at them. The girl said eyes belonged to was inside a cupboard under the sink. She was dressed in a black t-shirt, black jeans and had her chestnut hair pulled into a braid. The lights of her laser tag vest blinked and glowed in sharp contrast to the ones on her parents' vests, which had gone dark.

"Did your grandpa teach you that, Jo?" Kate asked.

"He told me to try and hide in places you wouldn't look, but also make sure these places are safe. Alexis suggested the cupboard," the six year old replied. Yep, Jackson Hunt was teaching her well. He and Jim Beckett were thick as thieves around their granddaughter and aiding and abetting Martha in trying to spoil the little girl rotten, with little success so far. And of course Alexis was always eager to teach her little sister various things.

Rick and Kate exchanged a meaningful look. Then they grabbed their daughter, threw her on the couch and began tickling her.

"Daddy! Mommy! Stop!" Johanna shrieked through her giggles. "You really are sore losers," she remarked after catching her breath. "And I believe I won the bet."

Castle situated her on his hip and she wrapped her arms and legs around her daddy, clinging to him like a koala to a tree. "You heard the lady, mommy," he told Kate.

"Let's leave the laser tag gear here and take her to the park. I'll put it away later."

"And we can pick up Jason from Dad's on the way home," Castle added. Jason Nathan Castle was his youngest child, born about a year after Johanna. The little boy's name was sort of a combination of his grandfathers' names. It had been the best choice after Kate had unequivocally eliminated Jameson as a possibility. The youngest Castle was also a target of the grandparents' group in their spoiling rotten efforts.

"Yay! Ice cream in the park!" Jo exclaimed. "Is Ry going to be there, too?" She was referring, of course, to Kevin and Jenny Ryan's son. The two were best friends (read: inseparable), much to Richard Castle's mock dismay.

"I can ask his parents, JoJo Bug," Kate replied, taking out her cell phone and speed-dialing Ryan. She spoke for a while and turned to her daughter. She looked up at her mom with expectant eyes.

"What did Kev say?"

"They'll be there."

"YAY!" She jumped off of her father and ran to her room to gather her backpack.

"And before you know it, you'll be walking her down the aisle," Kate teased her husband.

He looked at her, utterly horrified. "It will be like Alexis all over again." Alexis was currently traveling abroad on her honeymoon. "At least my darling wife has a gun."

"Then we better enjoy having our little girl around while it lasts. Come on, _daddy_."

"Yes, _mommy_."

**THE END**


End file.
